How do you solve a problem like Shivnarine? It sounds like a job for Andrew
Lloyd Webber.

The answer has undoubtedly evaded England. Chanderpaul occupied the crease for more than 20 hours in the three-Test series in 2004, spent an entire 24 hours at the wicket in the 2007 series, for much of which he remained unconquered. And he has driven England to distraction here with 10 hours 25 minutes of batting before he was finally prised out. Extracting him is like root canal work.

It was only in 2009 that he failed and that was instructive. Graeme Swann did him twice at Lord’s, once caught at slip for a duck, as the ball turned sharply, then in the second innings taken at silly point for four as he played for non-existent turn. He lasted five balls in the match.

It was Swann who ended his second-innings vigil here, but only after more than a day of toil. The snag was that there was little in this Lord’s pitch for the England off-spinner. The ball rarely turned, and then so slowly that Chanderpaul was able to adjust and steer it to safety.

Chanderpaul makes an unprepossessing No 1 batsman in the world. Frail-looking, bow-legged, with various eccentricities like his almost absurd square-on stance and light-enhancing stickers placed under his eyes.

Camped on the back foot, nurdling and squirting runs square of the wicket on either side, he has made a handsome living out of scoring ugly runs. Because of his back-foot preference, he looks instantly vulnerable to the fullish ball that swings in towards the stumps. But England were hampered by a cold wind and the ball largely refused to swing.

Which meant that when they did pitch up he leant easily into the ball and squeezed runs on the leg side. That made England bowl shorter and wider, playing into Chanderpaul’s deft hands. He rarely flirted at balls he did not have to play, and his bat seems attached to a curtain rail, such is its habit of accounting for any lateral movement the bowler may produce.

It is hard to be too critical of England’s bowlers, who were methodical and consistent and a shade unlucky, but they were guilty of bowling too few deliveries — barely a dozen — at his stumps.

A quarter of Chanderpaul’s 202 Test match dismissals have been lbw, a high proportion. They could have tried to bowl fuller and straighter with cover on the leg side.

Stuart Broad almost wriggled one such delivery past his bat as he poked unconvincingly. A thin inside edge saved him. But England seemed generally more intent on dragging him across his stumps and trying to induce him to play at wider balls. He refused. His concentration bubble was impenetrable.

He may not be destructive but he is demoralising to bowl at because his method of playing the ball late off the back foot absorbs the bowlers’ venom, making the ball appear slower and less potent.

Chanderpaul’s painstaking application rubbed off on Marlon Samuels, whose batting is like his West Indies Test career, a stop-start affair. He alternates resolute blocks with sudden bursts of adventure which often cause his downfall and ultimately his exclusion.

On Sunday his little Guyanese partner implored him not to be drawn into temptation and he largely obliged. It was an excellent innings of admirable self-control that surprised England.

They knew all about Chanderpaul’s adhesiveness. They hadn’t expected Pritt Stick at the other end too. It has made for an interesting final day.